Sunshine turns seawater into drinking water for two Tongan islands

On Hunga and Matamaka in Tonga's Vava'u group, new solar-powered desalination units now turn seawater into up to 8,600 litres of safe drinking water a day — the first reliable supply many residents have had, in place of fickle rainwater tanks. Ten community members per island, at least half of them women, were trained to run and maintain the systems, which are built to serve for 15 years.

SDG 6 · Clean water and sanitation — Mechanism: infrastructure build